Time to take new stand on terrorism

November 28th, 2008

HOW the world reacts to terrorist attacks in Mumbai will determine whether or not terrorism gets a second breath following the relative peace of the past few years.

The world is beginning to understand that terrorism, which has wrapped itself in sectarian idealism for the past decade, is no more than racism.

For infidels read Westerners and for Westerners read anyone with a white skin or a British or American passport.

Al-Qaeda and the Mujahideen are banking on the ignorance of millions of impoverished Middle Eastern and southern Asian people to allow their brand of zealotry to flourish. They invoke memories of the colonialism of white masters, gone at least half a century ago, to stoke their fires of hatred.

However misguided their campaign may be, the men with grenades and machine guns in Mumbai are as deadly and as callous as those who steered passenger planes into the World Trade Centre towers.

Note the continuing modus operandi: They all kill innocent people in the name of social or religious justice.

They do not attack the military.

India has suffered many terrorist attacks in the 60 years since its independence, yet it finds itself on new and dangerous ground with attacks on the Taj Mahal Hotel, the Oberoi Trident Hotel, a Jewish centre, a railway station, a cafe and a hospital.

These are places known to be frequented either by Westerners or by the most vulnerable of ordinary citizens.

The worldwide terrorist cause gained oxygen after the September 11 attacks not because of US counter-attacks against al-Qaeda or Middle Eastern criminal gangs, but because the lack of a common bond between decent, peace-loving nations. Spain, Turkey, Britain, Bali (and, by extension Australia) all became targets of al-Qaeda's bombers at a time when outrage against terrorism was strong, but practical international government cooperation still was weak.

India, the second most populous nation on earth and the largest democracy in the world, needs to know that all other democracies stand by her side.

The Mumbai attacks are significant not just because more than 100 people were killed, but because India stands on the threshhold of greatness and change.

Sectarian violence is the great fragmenter of nations and India can ill afford to be riven by anti-Western anarchists just when its economy is taking off and its people are being lifted out of poverty.

The latest attacks are a new pulse of the old form of terrorism.

Australia, at the forefront of anti-terrorism, should be as determined as ever to help India to contain its insurgents.